24 Out Of Time
by EamonSweetmay
Summary: Set right after season 2. Tony and the new guy Chase has been kidnapped. Business man Christopher Marks and the head of the Justice Department is planing a terror attack. Can Jack Bauer save the day?


14.00

He surveyed the area and counted the people going into the marked across the street. He rechecked the gun and pushed the earplug in a little further so that he was sure he wouldn't drop it. Across the street a car stopped and a young woman stepped out and closed the door of the car with a quick glance over her shoulder.

He held up the binocular and watched her as she spoke to the driver of the car. It was her; no doubt.

He watched her until she was inside the marked, then he leaned back against the wall, took out a cell phone and dialled a number on speed dial.

"Valletta." A voice answered.

"Nelson here. The girl's arrived."

"She alone?" the man in the other end asked.

Nelson glanced around the corner. "No, there's man with her. But he stayed in the car."

"Not a bodyguard then. Go ahead as planed." There was a click and Mr. Valletta's voice was gone. Nelson turned the phone of and dropped it on the ground. He then took out another cell phone and dialled a number.

"911. What is the nature of your emergency?"

"There has been a shooting on the corner of Venice Boulevard and Oak Street."

"How many casualties?"

"Hard to say. Everyone is running around in panic. Maybe as many as 10 people."

"Sir, I will need your name and I will need you to stay on this line until the ambulances get there."

"I can't. I need to help my wife. She's been shot and she's pregnant." Nelson looked around the corner again. The driver was still in the car, smoking a cigarette out the window.

"Sir, I'll need your name."

"My name is Bauer. Jack Bauer. Look, I have to go. My wife is bleeding."

He hung up the phone and dropped it as well.

Then he took a quick look over his shoulder and broke out into the passing crowd, blending in, heading for the drugstore.

14.08

She put down her book and looked out the window. The police had almost gone, and just one last car was left, the two cops taking statements from the woman who lived down stairs. It was her son, who had just been arrested, for assault and illegal possession of weapons.

The phone rang. She let it. She wasn't sure she had the strength to pick up the phone – to answer this call. The phone stopped ringing and the answering machine took the call.

"Hey Zara. It's Tony Almeida. I'm so sorry about your brother; Marcus was a really good friend and a great agent. I know you must be going through hell right now. " There was a pause. "Zara, pick up if you're there." Another pause. "We need you back at CTU. Something's come up. Call Michelle Dessler; she'll fill you in. Bye."

She closed the blinds again and sat down on the bed, looking at the cover of the book she had been reading. She had no idea what it was about. On the bedside table were empty bottles of sleeping pills and pain-killers and her gun.

The small apartment looked just like it had when she came home after Marcus had died. Her coat was lying on the floor, her clothes spread over the back of a chair. Otherwise the apartment was tidy. She had been asleep for the most of the four days since he died; or trying to sleep, anyway. There were always sirens and noise from the streets, and a bright neon sign across the street lit up her apartment, no matter how hard she tried to close the blinds.

She got up again. Swaying a little, still affected by the sleeping pills, she made her way out into the kitchen she had shared with Marcus. The pictures on the refrigerator showed Marcus and his family; Marcus graduating; Marcus and his team mates after SWAT-training; Zara in the park with her sunglasses on, smiling; Zara's mom. There were no pictures of the two of them together. Why had they never gotten a picture taken together? She looked at the floor for a few seconds and opened the refrigerator.

She closed it suddenly and ran out of the kitchen and out into the bathroom where she puked in the toilet. She sat down against the cold bathroom wall and cried.

On the mirror Marcus had put a note for her four days ago. "Got called in. Be back later. Love Marcus."

She finally pulled it together and got up, leaving the bathroom. She went back into her bedroom and got dressed. Then she looked at her gun at the bedside table. And she heard her own voice telling Tony Almeida that she was done, that she wasn't coming back to CTU. But she still hadn't gathered the nerve to send in her resignation.

She went over to the phone and dialed a number at speed dial.

"Michelle, this is Zara Logan. Tony said you needed me in today?"

Michelle looked down and sighed. "Yeah. Looks like we're going to be busy. We have had several threats of terrorist actions around the city." Pause. "Look Zara, you've got to be sure that you're up for the job."

Zara smiled. "I was never up for the job, Michelle. I messed up and he's dead because of that mistake. I had to _kill him_ because of that mistake."

"Can you do the job, Zara?"

"Of cause I can. I'm a professional, Michelle. Haven't I proven that?"

"Okay, I'll inform Division that you're coming. And Zara…?" Michelle took a deep breath.

"Yeah?"

"I'm really sorry about your brother."

"Come on, Michelle. You and I both know he wasn't my brother."

"Right." Zara hung up and Michelle looked over at Tony, who was talking to Adam Kaufman. She dialed Adam's stand.

Adam picked up. "Adam."

"Put Tony on."

Adam handed the phone to Tony. "It's Tony."

"Zara's coming in."

"Are we sure she can be professional?"

"She shot her own brother in the line of duty, Tony. I think that was professional."

"Right." Tony was disturbed by a young woman, Stacy. He hushed her with a hand. "I'll have Adam set up a stand for her."

"Alright." Michelle hung up.

Tony turned to Stacy. "What?"

"Mr. Chapelle's on the phone for you." She said.

"Thanks. I'll take it in my office. Adam, make sure Michelle and Hobber has those files and open up some sockets for Zara, she'll need an update on everything you've been working on."

"I will." Adam went to work at once and Tony made his way up to his office in the glass cage and took Chapelle's call.

"Tony Almeida."

Michelle watched Tony from her work stand. He talked on the phone for a while and then he hung up and dialed her stand.

She took the call. "Michelle."

"Michelle. Chapelle just called. There's been an emergency over at Division. Apparently some kind of shooting. I want you to get a hold of Jack Bauer. And put him on the threat reports."

"He just had a massive heart attack. To be honest I don't think he'll be up for it."

"Well, it's my call and my responsibility." Tony looked out of his office and down at his girlfriend. "Just get him on the line for me."

"I will." She hung up and dialed Jack Bauer's number, still watching Tony.

Tony put on a bulletproof west and ran down the stairs. He quickly explained something to their new field agent, Chase Edmunds, and the two of them left together in a hurry.

Michelle was so caught up in what was going on, that she had a shock when Jacks answering machine took the call.

"Leave a message for Jack Bauer."

"Jack this is Michelle Dessler from CTU. I know this is short notice, but we need you in today. It's importent." She looked at Adam working and hid her face between her hands, worried and confused.

"Jack, this is Michelle Dessler from CTU…" Jack was in a car, watching a man walking into a hotel. He listened to the message with out taking his eyes of the man. Jack got out of the car and made his way across the street, stopping a car on the way.

14.14

Jack went into the hotel lobby, following the man at a distance. The man didn't look suspiciously, and he wasn't acting suspiciously, but Jack followed his, as if he was a ticking bomb.

The man got into an elevator, along with a young couple. Jack got in as well. The doors closed and the elevator went up.

On the first floor the couple stepped out of the elevator. The man was about to leave as well, but Jack held him back pressing a gun to the small of his back. Jack pressed "second floor" and the doors closed. Between the two floors, Jack hit the "Emergency stop" and the elevator stopped. The man was shaking, obviously scared to death.

"What do you want with me?" he piped.

"I want you to tell me the location of a woman you had transferred out of the country a month ago."

"That information's classified!"

"Not anymore. Tell me what I want to know and I won't hurt you. Otherwise you will die in this elevator."

"Please. I get claustrophobic."

"Mr. Fretago, I am the only thing that should concern you now."

"Please, I just can't tell you."

"You're wife Marietta is waiting for you at home right now, right?"

"Don't hurt her!"

"I don't think it'll come to that." Jack breathed into the man's ear. "But I don't think she will be pleased to know who you are coming here to see, Mr. Fretago."

"Leave Josephine out of this!"

"No. You leave her out of this. Just tell me what I want to know and that will be the end of this."

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

Jack looked at the emergency button, which was flaring red. He blinked a few times, almost pressing the words out. "I need the last known location of a woman called Nina Myers." He looked at the floor. The red "emergency stop" was blinking to his right.

14.21

Nelson forced the woman along the street, holding a gun to her head. The passing people looked scared, but did nothing to help her. She tried to fight her kidnapper, as he forced her into the back of a black van, but he hit her in the head and she passed out. Nelson got into the van, where another black-clad man was sitting. The two looked at each other, and the second man got angry.

"She was supposed to be unharmed." He hissed.

"She _is_ unharmed. If I hadn't knocked her out, she'd be screaming the whole way." Nelson defended himself.

"It's on you." The second man said, speeding up and driving away from the parking lot.

14.24

Traffic was slow and Tony was drumming the dashboard with his fingers.

"What did Chapelle say?" Chase asked, looking out the window.

"He said that there had been a shooting at Division. Most of their personal had been killed."

"But Division is high security." Chase pointed out. "It should be one of the safest places."

"Apparently someone had the necessary means." Tony said hesitant. "Chapelle thought they might have had help from the inside."

"Someone at Division sold out?" Chase said, frowning. "I can't believe that."

Tony smiled a bitter smile. "You'd be surprised how often that happens." Tony looked at Chase. Chase shook his head in disbelief.

"It could be the people closest to you." He said. "If you're hardcore enough to sell out, you're willing to do anything, Chase."

They drove in on the parking lot outside Division and Chase got out of the car, putting on a bulletproof west and checking his portable computer for the casualty and damage reports sent to them by Division.

He was knocked out from behind at the same time as a hooded man pressed a gun to Tony's head.

"Don't try anything stupid, Almeida. It's not worth it." The man stepped back to make room. "Get out of the car."

Tony opened the door of the car and stepped out, and watched four men drag Chase into a black van. The man holding Tony at gun-point stepped back a little further and signaled to Tony that he should follow. Tony closed the door, putting up his arms. He took a step forward and was knocked out by a man coming from behind. Two more men came over and the four men carried Tony into the black van.

Zara stepped into CTU, had her things checked by the guard at the entrance and her gun and badge was returned to her. She walked past the people working, trying to ignore that they were all starring at her. She headed strait for Adams stand, looking at the floor. At Adams stand she was met by Stacy.

"We've set up a stand for you over here, Zara." she pointed to the empty work stand across from Adam, smiled and left. Zara sighed. Then she sat down and received an update report from Adam.

14.28

Michelle watched Zara entering and sighed, looking at the report in front of her. It had the name Marcus Logan on it. It wasn't finished. They still needed some statements from Zara, but Michelle hadn't wanted to bring this to Zara's attention just yet. She knew how Zara was hurting.

"Michelle?" Stacy appeared by her side with a stack of files in her arms.

Michelle looked up. "Yes?"

"Jack Bauer at line one for you."

"Thanks Stacy." Michelle picked up the phone. "Michelle."

"Jack Bauer. What's the emergency?"

"There has been a shooting over at Division. Tony has gone there to sort things out. We need a man on some terror threats we have received. One of them, a bomb in a shopping mall down town, has already gone off and several others have been confirmed. They're small bombs, but located all over the city."

Jack sighed, rubbing his forehead and looking out the window. "I don't work for CTU."

"Jack, you never work for CTU when we need you. If we had let that stop us before we would all be in a lot of mess right now." Michelle's voice was earnest. Jack looked down on the file in his lap and opened it. It was a file on Nina Myers; the picture attached looked up at him, a grim expression on her face. "Look, Michelle, I'm a little busy right now. Can I call you back?"

"Jack you won't call me back!" Michelle said irritated. But Jack had hung up his phone.

He looked through the file. She had been deported to North Africa. Everywhere she went, it was recorded, but Jack knew her. Like hell she was staying there, being a nice obedient citizen.

The phone rang, and he jumped slightly. He picked up the cell phone. "Jack."

"Hallo Mr. Bauer."

"Who is this?" Jack put the file away, and looked out on the street.

"No need for all those formalities now, Jack. All you need to know is that I have Tony Almeida and Chase Edmunds in my possession as we speak."

Jack looked around at the people passing. He had a feeling that he was being watched.

"We could have kidnapped your daughter, Jack. But she's probably a bit tired of being kidnapped by now. Besides, if we were to kidnap Kim, you would use any means necessary to get her back, and that would make the CTU a bit angry at you, and we need you to have the full cooperation of the CTU. And that was why we kidnapped Mr. Almeida and young Mr. Edmunds."

"What do you want from me?"

"First thing first, Jack. I'm sure you'll want to check that I truly have Mr. Almeida and Mr. Edmunds. I'll advise you to call CTU. I will call back later." The line was disconnected and Jack dropped his cell phone on the passenger seat, and drove out on the street, towards CTU. When he got out in the traffic he picked up the phone and dial CTU.

"Zara Logan, CTU."

"Zara, this is Jack Bauer. Put Michelle Dessler on the phone."

"One second."

Jack sped through traffic and evaded a car in an intersection.

"This is Michelle."

"What the hell is going on over there?" Jack all but yelled.

"Want do you mean?"

"I just got a call that Tony and some guy Edmunds has been kidnapped, and I haven't been informed!"

Michelle changed the hand on the phone and started opening some files on her computer. "What are you talking about? Tony and Chase are over at Division."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, they left not fifteen minutes ago."

"Will you please check it for me?"

"Sure. One second."

The other end went quiet, as Michelle called Division. Jack waited, driving with one hand. He turned a corner.

Michelle was back. "According to Richardson over at Division, they haven't shown up yet."

"And they haven't thought to contact us to confirm that Tony was on his way?"

"Well, they are in a bit of chaos over there, Jack, what with the shooting and all."

"Tell me about this shooting."

"Apparently it was a pretty well-organized attack. They're messed up pretty badly over there. They think it may have been organized with someone from the inside."

Stacy stepped up to Michelle. "Mr. Chapelle on line two for you."

"Okay. Look Jack, I'll have to call you back." She hung up and Jack put down the cell phone, thinking fast. He turned a corner just as the cell phone rang and Jack stopped at the side of the road, took out a recorder and connected it to the phone. Then he took the call.

"Have you confirmed the disappearance of Mr. Almeida and Mr. Edmunds yet, Jack?" Jack started driving again.

"What do you want with them, you son of a bitch?"

"There, there Jack. No need for that tone of voice. I am merely a business man, who is trying to cut a deal."

"What do you want?" Jack asked, turning the car onto the CTU parking lot.

"That's more like it, Jack. A proper question."

Jack jumped out of the car and closed the door quietly. Then he ran over to the entrance, running right past the security guard and found Michelle's work stand.

"It's not really all that difficult, Jack. I just need someone, whom you have access to."

Jack waved Michelle closer and she leaned in to listen in on the conversation.

"You know I don't have the authority to give you anything." Jack said looking at Michelle.

"Well that's really too bad, Jack. Why don't you tell that to Michelle, when she gets her boyfriend back in a body bag?" Michelle covered her eyes, breathing weakly.

"I'll get back to you with further instructions." The phone was disconnected.

Jack looked around on the people working in CTU. Then he looked at Michelle and then at the floor.

14.38

Slowly she opened her eyes and with a trembling hand, she found the place in the back of her head, where she had been knocked out. Half-dried blood stuck to her fingers. She started shaking as she looked around in the small prison cell.

She could hear other people near by; men talking and laughing. She got up slowly and grabbed the bars of the cell door, trying against reason to shake the door open, but the door was locked securely.

"Hallo. Don't you know who I am? My name is Berkley Wells. My dad is the British ambassador." She shook the bars of the cell door again. "You don't have the right to keep me here."

"Shut up." was the only response she got. And she let go of the bars and looked around in the cell.

After the first anger of being captured and forced here had settled, she started to shiver and she went back to her bed, crawled up like a scared child in the corner and cried.

14.41

Adam was working on cross-referencing the locations of the bombs, which had been located and disarmed at this point, but no pattern seamed to present itself. Suddenly he had a weird idea and shifted the information keys.

Something odd happened, and he leaned back in his chair, confused and overwhelmed. Then he picked up the phone and dialed Michelle.

"Dessler."

"Michelle, it's Adam. The cross-reference of the bombs gave nothing, but then I tried doing references on the places the threats had been called in from."

"And?" Michelle was up in the glass cage, looking down on Adam's work stand.

"And nothing. The files on the location of those calls had been removed."

"What do you mean "removed"?" Michelle asked irritated.

"I mean just that. Removed, deleted."

"By someone inside CTU?"

"Not necessarily. This could have happened anywhere between here and the call center which received the threat. But look at what I'm sending you now." Adam pushed the phone in between his ear and shoulder, so he would have both hands free, and then he send the file to Michelle's inbox.

"Adam, what am I looking at?"

"This is the information from twenty minutes ago, which I stored for safekeeping. A lot of the newest locations aren't on here, but I think you get the picture."

Michelle looked at the map of Los Angeles, where red markings, each representing the location of where a threat had been called in. The markings far from had a logical pattern at first appearance, since there were only a few markings compared to how many there should have been, had all the markings from all the called-in threats been there. But Michelle was sharp, and it didn't take her long to make out a number. 347. The markings made out the number 347.

"Why would someone go through the trouble of creating this number for us, and then deleting it, so we couldn't see it?" Michelle said looking at the map to be sure her eyes did not deceive her.

"Because they knew that wasn't the case. They knew we had a backup file stored." Adam said checking his data.

"Then why delete the original?"

"To get our attention." Adam said with out a trace of hesitation. "They wanted to make sure we saw this."

"Of course. Cross-reference this number with everything we have and get Francis on the line for me."

The phone rang. Jack made sure the tracing device was working, and then he took the call.

"Jack Bauer."

"Ah, Jack. Good to hear you're still around."

"Let me talk to Tony Almeida." Michelle and Zara appeared by his side, and they plugged in an earpiece, so that they could listen in.

"Oh no, Jack. We can do better than that. Log onto sat down on his chair and logged onto the internet address. It was a live feed. Tony and Chase Edmunds were tied up and blindfolded, leaned against a pillar in a brightly lit basement.

"Son of a bitch. How do I know this is live?" Jack demanded.

"You will know if you do not comply with my wishes." The voice said.

"What is it you want?"

"It's simple. I want you Jack, to bring me Zara Logan. Unharmed. Then I will have your agents safely returned to you."

Jack looked at Zara. She looked scared, but angry. She pulled out the earplug and threw it on the table, and turned her back to Jack and Michelle.

Jack and Michelle directed their attention back onto the conversation.

"There is no way that will happen." Jack said firmly.

On the live feed one of the men guarding Tony and Chase stepped forward, lifted his gun and shot Tony in the arm. They couldn't hear his scream, but they knew this was real.

Zara looked at the picture on Jacks computer with disgust in every line of her face. Then she went to her desk, took her jacked and left CTU with out a word to anyone.

"You son of a bitch." Jack swore, covering his eyes for a few seconds.

"I will get what I want, Jack. Make no mistake." There was a short pause. "You have one hour to comply." The line was disconnected. Jack looked at Michelle.

"There is no way we can give up Zara to get Tony and Chase back." Michelle said defeated.

"She's a field agent." Jack said leaning back in his chair and covering his face in his hands. "We could use her as bait."

Michelle looked a little confused. "I'll call Chapelle."

Jack watched her as she walked away, then he scanned the room, looking for Zara, but she was no where around.

Zara was walking across the parking lot in a fast pace. She got into her car, slammed the door, and rested her shaking hands in her lap. Then she gathered all her will power, started the car and drove away, out of the parking cellar, onto the road and away.

14.57

Berkley woke up in her cell. There was a man standing outside the cell door, talking on the phone. He was about the same age as her father, but his hair wasn't quite grey yet.

She wanted to yell, then maybe who ever the man was talking to, would hear her and come to rescue her. But all hopes of this died when the man started talking. "I've got the girl, next step is yours."

She closed her eyes, pretended to be asleep. The man outside looked at her, and then took a few steps away from the cell.

"It's already coming together, Mr. Bredell." The man in the other end said.

Mr. Bredell nodded "You have better come through for me here, Marks." Bredell said, sounding a little pissed off.

"I will, don't worry. I have my own interests to consider, remember that."

Mr. Bredell shook his head. "If this thing blows up in my face, I will bring you down with me!"

"Oh, I don't think it will come to that, Mr. Bredell." The man in the other end said; this Mr. Marks. Then he hung up the phone, and Bredell looked at the phone, as if it had just been the one to patronize him.

She looked at the floor, tears steaming down her face. She could feel her entire body shake, as she began to understand that no one would come to save her..

15.00


End file.
